Sprinklings of history, a smidgen of genealogy, a dash of art & a dusting of architecture, all mixed together with my eccentric fascinations

07 December 2012

Santiago’s elegant edificios

I’ve
always been a fan of elegantly designed buildings and, here in Santiago, I’ve found no shortage to point my
lens at. Here are a few that have appealed:

The
Museo de Bellas Artes (the FineArtsMuseum)
is Chile’s
principal art gallery. Designed by Chilean architect Emilio Jéquier as an
approximate copy of the Petit Palais in Paris,
the gallery displays contemporary and past Chilean art as well as playing host
to visiting exhibitions. Not only is it a stunning example of classical
architecture on the outside, it also has an amazing steel and glass roof. Begun
in 1905, the building was finally inaugurated on 21 September 1910.

El Correo Central (the central
post office) is located on one corner of the Plaza de Armas. I found conflicting
information about the building in guidebooks and on line, so I will paraphrase
what Professor Wiki has to say on the subject. According to Wikipedia, ‘The building was built in 1882 by architect Ricardo Brown
on the foundations of the old Palace of the Governors, one that had been
damaged by fire in 1881 and had been the residence of the presidents of the
Republic until 1846, when the seat of government moved to the Palace of La
Moneda. In 1908, the architect
Ramón Fehrman transformed the facade, adopting a neoclassical style influenced
by the French. In 1976, the building was declared a historic monument and,
since 2004, the ground floor has housed the Post and TelegraphMuseum.'

On
the corner of the Plaza de Armas adjacent to the post office is Santiago’s Cathedral, the fifth such building
on this site. The first edition was destroyed by fire following an attack by
the local indigenous population and the following three incarnations were each
destroyed by earthquakes, in 1552, 1647 and 1730 respectively. Although work on
the current building began in 1747, the final design, by Italian Joaquίn
Toesca, was not devised until the 1780s and building had not been completed
prior to the architect’s death in 1799. A century later, the twin towers were
added by another Italian Ignacio Cremonesi. Inside, the cathedral is lavishly
decorated, its ceiling in particular a sumptuous work of art.

The newly restored building below was re-inaugurated in 1981 as the seat of government,
though it has an interesting and somewhat tragic past. The Palacio de la Moneda
is so called because it was originally designed by the Italian architect
Joaquίm Toesca – who also designed the Cathedral – as the country’s mint. It
was built between 1788 and 1805, functioned as the Mint until 1929, part of
that time also housing Chile’s
presidents, who lived here between 1846 and 1958. When General Augusto Pinochet
led the military coup here in Santiago,
on 11 September 1973, then president Dr Salvador Allende committed suicide
here, and the building itself suffered severe damage as a result of being
bombed by Chilean Air Force Hawker Hunters and the fires which followed.

The
Museo Nacional de Historia Natural, or National Museum of Natural History, lies
within Quinta Normal, a large and beautiful park on the outskirts of downtown Santiago. The exterior of
the building, originally designed by French architect Paul Lathoud for the
First International Exhibition in 1875 but subsequently rebuilt following a
devastating earthquake in 1927, is quite plain and, on the day I visited, the
museum was playing host to large numbers of noisy school children, all vying
for their turn at the interactive displays it houses. Its one redeeming exhibit
– the enormous skeleton of a blue whale – was in the process of being
dismantled behind large screens. But I found the building’s interior design
quite charming, if mostly inaccessible, completely under-appreciated and
largely ignored.

The
Museo Artequin sits on one of the busy boulevards that surround the Quinta
Normal park and is a delightful example of quirky architecture. The building,
constructed of iron and glass, was designed by Frenchman Henri Picq for the
International Exposition in Paris in 1889, and
brought back in pieces to be reconstructed here in Santiago following the exhibition. I had read
negative reviews of the museum itself, which uses replicas of famous artworks
to educate Chilean children about the world’s art, so didn’t bother going in
but enjoyed photographing the building’s colourful exterior.

Terraza
Neptuno or Neptune’s Terrace is located on Cerro Santa Lucίa, a rocky outcrop
in the central city where Santiago’s
founder Pedro de Valdivia and his 150 men first encamped. These days it is a
haven of green amidst towering steel-and-glass skyscrapers and concrete
apartment blocks but it also includes remnants of its fascinating past: bits of
its original fortifications, a plaque to commemorate a visit by Charles Darwin,
a small chapel which can no longer be visited due to the earthquake damage that
plagues this city, and Castillo Hidalgo, now an events centre. It also has a
wonderful folly, dating from the late 1870s, when city mayor, Benjamίn Vicuña
Mackenna, decided to place his own stamp on the small mountain by creating
sweeping terraces and grand curving stairways, a triumphal arch topped off by a
grand dome and a classically inspired statue of Neptune,
riding the waves of his very own fountain.

About Me

I am a writer and photographer; project
manager and English teacher; knitter and genealogist; fungi forayer and bird
watcher; countryside rambler and city strider; volunteer and child sponsor; tree
lover and cat person; researcher and blogger; nemophilist; and traveller.